Fate?
by spacecowboy2011
Summary: While doing a simple task, an event occurs which changes this young man's life forever. What happens next may or may not be fate, it is up to him to find out as he sets forth on a journey to find the answers to the questions which he has. However, having a question answered sometimes brings even more questions...


They say that your life flashes before your eyes in your final moments, everything compressed by some outside force into one moment. It was always an interesting concept to me, however I had hoped to never test it out to see if it was true or not. I am fairly certain now, however, that it is false. I wasn't seeing my past, it wasn't even on my mind. Currently, I was trying to do some number crunching. Oh, you know, how much time does it take to fall from a spot in the air at terminal velocity before you find the ground? That was my current thought, came right after thinking if I had turned the lights off back home. Now, you might want to ask "Well, what exactly brought about this suddenly unexpected free fall?" Sheer bad luck is what it seemed. It'll probably be best if I rewind to this morning though, it would probably make more sense this way.

*** *** ***

It was yet another sunny day outside, the sun just peaking over the horizon and finding its way through the blinds right into my eyes. With a groan, I got up and did my daily morning ritual. In the midst of this, I paused for a moment, taking a good look at myself in the bathroom mirror. Standing at five foot ten inches, I was of average height, and weighed one hundred and sixty pounds. My blue eyes peeked out through the unkempt mess of black hair on my head that reached to the bottom of my neck. Finishing up in the bathroom, I picked out some blue jeans, a black T-shirt, and tossed on some black sneakers. Today was going to be a rather interesting day, not even counting the fact that it was my twenty second birthday. I was going to be making a delivery from New Bark Town to Alto Mare, which was a wonderful city that I had yet to visit, due to its location well off the mainland of Johto. I had even managed to line up some time off for when I finished the delivery so I could take in the sights and enjoy the island town.

I enjoyed my job immensely; I was a courier for a company that specialized in the delivery of small packages that people paid a premium to be delivered quickly. I had started out with the ground routes, using the Ponyta and the occasional Rapidash to speed through the Routes between cities. It was rather amusing to see the looks on some of the newer trainers when they saw the horse going at a full speed gallop roaring past them.

I had finally managed to transfer over into the air sector of the business not too long ago, and I have never been happier. I'll admit it wasn't for the faint of heart, but traveling through the skies on the back of a pokemon was hands down the most exciting thrilling experience I had ever had. The wind whistling past you as you defied gravity at high speeds was the highlight of my job now, the small packages a simple afterthought that were only remembered at the end of each flight. Even my dreams were subsumed by thoughts of flying now; it was the one thing that I lived for.

Leaving the house I soon found myself outside my place of employment. Walking in, I gave the usual greetings to the on duty clerk and went straight to the pickup section to get the day started. Picking up the satchel with a small round box inside, I secured it on my person and went to check which Pokemon I would be flying with today. With yet another stroke of sheer luck, I had Ross as my companion today. While most Charizards were extremely temperamental bastards regardless of gender, Ross was a rather chill dude. I had had the opportunity to fly with him in the past, and was thrilled to find myself paired up with him yet again. Finding his pokeball, I went outside after signing for both the package and Ross and went to the departure area out back and activated the pokeball.

"Char!" Ross let out when he appeared from the red flash, stretching his wings and warming up before the flight. "Hey Ross, we get to go to Alto Mare this time, glad to be in your care again man. Let me know when you're warmed up and we can get moving." Ross nodded to me in reply and a few minutes later found me on his back, ready to go. We took off from the ground in a gust of wind, Ross' wings flapping quickly as the ground retreated from beneath us. We quickly climbed high into the sky, and Ross slid into a steady rhythm once we were a mile or two above the ground. At this height, the ground beneath us was like looking at a map, individual features were indistinguishable. The terrain simply meshed and melded, here hills met forests, which then met rivers, and roads crisscrossed it all with cities as their hubs. It was a rather humbling sight, as it lent weight to the fact that we were just so... small in the grand game of life.

Hours later and I found myself over the ocean that separated the island Alto Mare was located on from the Johto mainland. The weather had held steady, the clear blue sky unmarred by clouds met the ocean in a seam of blue on blue. The air was calm as well, and Ross seemed to have found a nice air current to keep him aloft with almost no effort on his part. It was making for one of the smoothest rides I'd had to date. Ross let out a quick sound, breaking me out of my thoughts and turning my attention towards the horizon. In the distance lay the faint outline of land, meaning Alto Mare should soon be coming into sight as well. It only took a few more minutes for the port of the city to become visible, and I went to take a pass over the city while still high up, to see how the city was laid out. Canals were laid out in a grid, with pathways and then buildings radiating out from the canals. Busy markets were occasionally seen, with large areas of residential houses. One of the highlights from up above was the large circuit like canal that ran in the center of the town; it looked as if it were used for races and other similar activities. Overall, the city looked amazing from up high.

A buffet of wind broke my concentration from the city below to see what was going on. While I had been busy admiring the city below, apparently a storm had started to develop out of nowhere, the rapid formation of clouds quickly turning black spoke to some unnatural cause behind it. It was also where the wind had come from, starting to rapidly whip around, at the moment it was only gently tossing me and Ross around, but that would most likely change very quickly. Ross started descending, the ground below his target to give us refuge from the freak storm. The weather all around us continued to build, the wind trying to constantly buck me from Ross' back, who was already tired from the flight here. The ground disappeared from sight as well, the only clue as to which direction we were going became the pull of gravity. Lightning was flashing all around us as heavy rain began its assault, large drops quickly soaking us to the core. As the rooftops below finally began to become visible again, a feeling of pain accompanied another flash of light and a large boom. Ross had been squarely struck by a stray bolt of lightning, and in turn so had I. The shock of it tossed me from his back; he corrected himself after a few moments while I helplessly plunged to the roofs below. I somehow passed through the roof below me, caught a brief glimpse of a fountain, and then felt the impact. The last thing I saw, an unknown time later, was a brief flash of gold, and then blackness claimed my vision.

*** *** ***

Meanwhile, in one of the many houses located in Alto Mare, two friends were relaxing inside to escape the hot summer afternoon. The two young women looked to be almost mirror copies of each other, both having brown hair that fell down to their waistline in a ponytail, lightly tanned skin, and an overall petite figure. The only difference at first sight was one of the young women had brown eyes while the other had gold ones. Also, if you talked with them, one of them was mute, but was also gifted with the talent of being a psychic, which allowed her to project her thoughts into the minds of others in lieu of speaking. Currently they were making small talk while looking through sketchbooks.

"_Bianca, remember this drawing?_" She held out a colored drawing to Bianca, which depicted two dragon pokemon and a girl who looked to be a younger Bianca. One of the dragon pokemon was white in coloration on its front half, broken only by a blue triangle on its head. Its wings and lower half were also blue, similar to the calm clear sea. The other dragon pokemon was slightly smaller than the other, and had a light red color where the other had blue. Between the two of them was a younger Bianca, framed by a beautiful fountain in the background in the middle of a park of some sort. The three of them were smiling, and although it was simply a moment captured on paper, you could tell that they were radiating joy.

"Hey, I remember this one Rose! I took one look at it and told grandpa I was going to become an artist! He just laughed at me though when I told him that." She let out a small sigh as she focused on the larger blue dragon in the drawing. "I wonder how he's doing; it's been awhile since his last visit. I hope all has been well with him and that kid he took off with. All cause he wanted to see the world." She carefully handed the drawing back to Rose and then picked up her sketchbook and pencil and opened it up to a fresh page.

" _Yeah, it has been awhile. I wonder what kind of stuff he's seen and where he has been. I want to travel someday soon myself and see the world as well, I'm kind of jealous to be honest! Stupid brother of mine._" Rose let out a small giggle as she finished her statement and put the drawing back in its place as she moved on to the next one. The book was filled with drawings and sketches of the dragons and Bianca, starting from when they were all rather young to as current as just a few months ago. Rose became lost in the memories, recalling when all three of them would play for hours on end in the hidden garden, tucked away from the rest of the world and not having to worry about anything. Those were the days indeed!

While Bianca and Rose were both lost in their actions, a storm began brewing outside. It wasn't completely uncommon for storms to roll in during the afternoons, especially during summer, so neither of them paid it much attention. However, a few minutes later, Rose felt a sense of foreboding, and quickly dropped what she was doing. "_Bianca, something is up, I'm headed to the garden! Hopefully it isn't anything big, but I'll holler if I need your help!_" Closing her eyes momentarily, Rose began to shine, light appearing from nowhere as her closed eyes glowed blue briefly, and then her body quickly morphed to that of the light red dragon pokemon from the earlier drawing, a Latias. Pulling on her latent Psychic powers, she went invisible as she zipped out the door into the weather, the rain parting around her as if she did not exist. It took her all of a minute to arrive at the garden, her sense of foreboding still present.

Rose first looked towards the fountain, in which rested a small blue spherical object known as the Soul Dew. When she and her brother were very young, a tragedy threatened to wipe Alto Mare off the map, and only the sacrifice of their father saved the town at the time. All that was left behind of him was the Soul Dew, a fragment of him still contained within, keeping a watchful eye over the city. It was mostly the reason why Rose was still in Alto Mare and not traveling the world, either her brother or herself needed to be around to keep an eye on it just in case. Luckily, ever since the incident that claimed their father's life nothing eventful had happened, however neither of them were ready to leave the Soul Dew unguarded just yet.

"Nothing, guess it is just a false alarm? One last look around and then I'll head back I suppose." As she turned around, she heard a peculiar sound that she struggled to place amid the torrential downpour. She located the source of the sound just a little late, as with a thud and a crack, a person fell from the sky, splashing down in the fountain and on top of the Soul Dew itself. She let out a gasp and flew over to the fountain, using her psychic powers she encased the young man and levitated him out of the water where he had landed face down and placed him down on the ground next to the fountain gently face up. 'Oh no...' she thought to herself as she took a quick look towards the fountain before she focused her full attention on the person. In the fountain water the Soul Dew still laid, mostly whole. Mostly. Roughly a fifth of the sphere was gone, and no fragments were visible nearby.

"_Bianca__! A human fell from the sky and landed in the garden, plus the Soul Dew is damaged! I need you to try to get in touch with brother and then meet me at the Pokecenter, let them know I'll be coming soon! I'll try to do what I can to stabilize him though first_!" Rose forcefully projected to Bianca, ensuring that she got her psychic call out. Rose peered closely at the man lying on the ground in front of her, leaning over his face to see if he was still breathing. She heard air moving from him, and his eyes fluttered open and closed a few times, although he appeared unconscious. Luckily he had survived wherever he had fallen from, although as she moved her attention to the rest of him it was obvious he was in very bad shape. Her medical knowledge was limited, but it was obvious even to her that he had multiple fractures and breaks in his arms and legs, plus who knew what else was wrong with him as a result of his fall. She saw his left shoulder was rather bloody; it looked like she had found the missing piece of the Soul Dew. Only part of it was visible to her, it looked as if it went all the way down to his bone leaving just a small tip of the shard visible above his skin.

Rose wasn't sure where to start, but she began trying to use Recover on him to help bring him from the brink and stabilized so she could get him moved to the Pokemon Center and hand him off to the capable hands of Nurse Joy. Luckily, it seemed as if she was having some effect on the man, it appeared as if his pain was becoming slightly less, and a few of the smaller breaks and bruises were mending. Once he seemed a little better, and she was tired, Rose paused and closed her eyes. Sending her mind out to Bianca was a difficult thing to do without having her in sight, but it was something that she had been constantly practicing. "_Bianca, is Joy ready for me to bring him to her?_" Rose asked after finding Bianca's mind. _"Yeah, she has the main ER cleared already, so come straight in and she'll take it from there."_ Bianca's words rang out in Rose's mind. Levitating the man again, Rose reached out a claw to touch him gently, and then closed her eyes and focused with the ER in the forefront of her mind. With a yanking sensation, Rose opened her eyes to a change of scenery, in this case she was in the ER, and Nurse Joy was ready with her equipment and tools. Rose gently set him down on the table, and with a last glance to Nurse Joy and the man, she teleported back out to the garden.

*** *** ***

Rose and Bianca were both in the garden, the afternoon storm had abated some time ago. There was still no word from Joy about the young man, whose identity they didn't even know.

"I left a message with Steven for your brother, he should be here pretty soon hopefully." Bianca told Rose, a small smile forming on her lips at the thought. "We were talking about how he had been before all this happened." She motioned towards the fountain and the Soul Dew, "It will be nice to actually see him, even if it isn't for the best of reasons." Bianca's gaze slightly unfocused as she trailed off at the end of her statement, leaving Rose rolling her eyes. She was well aware that Bianca had a crush on Cael, her brother. It had been rather amusing to Rose at first that Bianca had a crush on Cael, but as time went on and she talked about him more and more, she just wished they would get together so she could stop having to hear Bianca talk about it all the time.

Letting out a slight cough, Rose distracted Bianca. "_When he gets here, he'll probably be pretty tired from the teleport I'd imagine. Luckily he isn't too far away at the moment, but we might have to wait a little bit after he gets here to restore the Soul Dew. Thankfully it shouldn't be too much of a challenge, I've been checking on it and it seems as if the damage is purely physical in nature, so it should be easy for the two of us to fix._" As Rose wrapped up Bianca came out of her small reverie and nodded at her comments.

With a loud popping noise, a Latios appeared near the fountain in the air, eyes closed in concentration. Opening his eyes, he noticed both Bianca and Rose looking at him. "_Bianca, sister, it is nice to see you both again. Now please, tell me what happened._" Rose did most of the talking, with Bianca only speaking up once or twice, as they brought Cael up to speed with what exactly had happened with the Soul Dew and the mysterious man who fell on it. Cael raised his eyebrows at how the man had simply fallen from the sky, but as Rose wrapped up the story, Cael was relieved. He was worried that it had sustained damage from an attack or theft, and knowing it was simply a freak accident gave him some piece of mind. "_Okay, I think I've got it all. Give me a few minutes and I'll be ready to do my part Rose._" With that said, Cael floated down to a bench nearby and rested on it. Bianca walked over and sat down with him while Rose took off flying around for a bit.

Bianca started gently rubbing along Cael's neck, enjoying the soft feel of the many small feathers under her hands. "It's nice to see you again Cael, you don't visit nearly as much as you should, you know? We'd love to have you come by a bit more often, even if it's not for long." Cael leaned into her hand a little at the attention, it was soothing to him after the strain from teleporting from a long distance. "_Sorry Bianca, but Steven has been keeping a quick tempo, there really isn't any time to sneak away usually. Still, at the rate we've been traveling it shouldn't be much longer until he's done with the league, and after that I'll probably come back to Alto Mare for awhile. Nothing beats home, does it?_" The two of them stayed on the bench for awhile longer, nothing else spoken between them, Bianca solely focused on Cael while he was starting to nod off.

_"Okay, time to nab my sister and fix the Soul Dew. We'll have some time to catch up afterwards, promise._" Cael said sometime later, causing Bianca's focus to break as she jumped a little at the unexpected telepathy. Both of them got up as Cael called for Rose, who promptly appeared a minute later. Cael and Rose went to the fountain and began focusing their power. Their eyes glowing blue, a faint blue outline appeared around the Soul Dew as it was levitated from the fountain slowly to rest in midair between the siblings. The outline began to get brighter and extended to include the missing portion of the Soul Dew. Very soon the Soul Dew was lost in the aura surrounding it, which continued to get brighter and brighter. With a final flash, the Soul Dew let off a brilliant blue light which died and left behind a now completely whole Soul Dew, the missing portion restored.

*** *** ***

Meanwhile, Joy was finally wrapping up her work on the man lying on the ER table in front of her, who name she had found on an ID card in his wallet, one William Volan from New Bark Town of Johto. He had been her most trying patient she had ever had to date, but luckily things were looking good for him now, at least in terms of his miraculous survival. She figured with his injuries he had fallen from at least six stories up, which had at the best a 5% survival rate. He had multiple fractures on his legs; his right arm had been mangled by the fall as well, although somehow his left arm was relatively fine with only one fracture. With luck and lots of therapy, he might be able to walk again one day in the future. The Chancey had exhausted itself healing his insides, as he had had multiple broken ribs and a punctured lung. Now though, all she had left was the puncture wound in his shoulder, which had an unknown object lodged down into the bone itself. Wiping her brow, she began to pick out the instruments she would need to extract the object and start patching up his shoulder.

As she reached for his shoulder, a glow started forming, focused on the object in William's shoulder. With a start Joy jumped backwards a little, thoroughly startled by the light. It was growing in intensity, going from a very faint intensity to that of the afternoon sun, at which point Joy had to turn away lest she be blinded by it. A few seconds later and the light flared one last time, and then died. Blinking her eyes, Joy turned her attention back towards William. The jagged wound was gone, although something was left in its place. Where the tip of the object had been, a small circle of blue now lay inside a triangle of red, taking up the majority of his shoulder as if it were a tattoo. Joy quickly began checking his vitals and found nothing else out of the ordinary. Although stumped by what had happened, she was satisfied that he was on his way to a recovery now and that she could finally rest. However, she had one last stop to make, a call to Bianca. She would let them sort out what had happened.

*** *** ***

I found myself floating in an expanse of white, nothing distinguishable in sight. The last thing I recalled was falling off Ross' back, and a random flash of gold. There had also been the sensations of pain, to a point I had never felt before, but fortunately for whatever reason it had faded relatively quickly, although it hadn't been quick enough for my liking. Now though, where was I? As I stood? floated? there confused, the white around me began to slowly solidify into that of a nondescript room, nothing really discernible except whitewashed walls. Objects finally began to come into focus as time drifted on, medical machines first, followed by monitors, medical tools, and then a surgery table, which had an occupant on it as well as a person standing over it. Taking a closer look I saw myself on the table, and damn was I a mess! I had a machine breathing for me, my extremities were all in casts, I had a neck brace on, and my body was quickly turning mottled shades of yellows and blues.

This was a rather interesting thing I was experiencing, I'd dreamed before, but this, out of body experience? Took the cake for sure. This was too surreal, especially seeing my wrecked body down below me. It was as if I were watching an old black and white film, except this was in color yet still soundless. I noticed a peculiar light coming from my shoulder centered on a blue shard of some sort; I had no idea what it was though. The person who had been working on me, one of the many Joy sisters from her appearance, jumped back startled by it, and turned her eyes away as it kept getting brighter. Within a minute, the light had flared then died out, leaving behind a peculiar mark on a now unmarred shoulder. It was, all in all, a very odd occurrence.

"Fate. A very odd concept." A voice rang out, piercing the stillness, nobody in sight to put it to. "If you believe in it, then you fall into the belief that no matter what you do, you are determined to walk a set path. Even if you think you can change your fate, you could very well be following it by trying to break it. Additionally, if you do not believe in it, by not believing in it you could also be walking a predetermined path based on your choice of deciding not to believe in it. A contradiction in and of itself, that is the only certainty about fate. So, tell me William. What would you do if I told you fate had brought about what had happened to you? Would you meekly bow your head and give in, try to fight and change it, or laugh at the notion of it?"

Oh great, a cryptic philosophical line-spouter, just what I needed to add on top of everything else that was going on already. Next, I expected Shakespeare himself to come down from the heavens and start spouting quotes at me. "As much as I would love to banter about philosophical garbage, I think I'd rather see my speaker face to face, or spirit to spirit, whatever may be the case at this time." I shouted out into the void. hoping to at least see who or what was talking. As much as I was hoping that this would all just be a bad dream I would wake up from, I knew enough to know that this was most definitely real. My mind was figuratively racing a million miles a minute, trying to take all of it in.

The room began to fade out, everything fading to black except the ground, which took on the appearance of a stage one would find at any performance theater. Everything else went dark, a lone spotlight illuminating the spot where I stood. A voice in the darkness let out a laugh as this transition occurred, as a second spotlight began to form a few yards away from me, a shadow rising from the ground it was focused on. It began to rise up and take shape, and after a few seconds I recognized it from a photograph that had been in a prominent Pokemon magazine. It was Darkrai, the "Nightmare Pokemon" being what he was typically referred to as. "So, you see me William. You're avoiding my question, but we can get back to that soon enough." He let out a grin that seemed to stretch impossibly far, and although I'm sure he had meant to look friendly or humorous, it was rather menacing to see. "Before you ask any questions, know that I probably cannot answer them. All I can say is that the events that led up to your accident was for a reason. I'll leave it up to you to conjecture as to why. It could simply be the whim of Arceus, or you might be needed for some grand scheme sometime down the line. There is a reason I threw that whole philosophical fate quote at you, I'll leave it up to you to interpret these events how you will. Regardless of the why, what you choose to do will ultimately effect whatever comes next." Darkrai broke into another grin, this time accompanied by a rather bone chilling chuckle. Not the best answer I was seeking, that was for sure.

"So," I began hesitantly, "What you're saying is that I was destined to take that fall and basically break every bone in my body? I somehow find that relatively hard to believe, but fine, I'll bite for now. According to your statement, regardless of my choice if 'fate' exists it doesn't matter what I do, as it will fit whatever 'grand scheme' is supposedly laid out." Ah, my voice was most definitely dripping with sarcasm by this point. I was always more of the thought that one chose their own path, and their interactions with each other and sometimes sheer luck determined where they ended up in the whole grand scheme. Nothing like having the Nightmare himself flip that belief on its head and expect you to eat it up as if it were candy. "Let's just leave that topic alone though... Can you at least tell me what was up with that blue shard, the light and my new ink?" I asked, moving to point to my body before realizing I could no longer see it.

"Well William, that's part of something you have to discover for yourself. The extent, or lack of, whatever has happened is up to you and those you may encounter to explore and understand. With this, I leave it up to you. Good luck, and remember, I'm only a dream away." As he was talking, the spotlight was slowly fading out, and the last I saw of him was that giant creepy smile of his as he faded back into the shadows. I still wasn't sure what was going on, or what was going to happen now. I only knew one truth right now.

Man, am I fucked!


End file.
